


Once a Captain, Always a Captain

by SearchingforSerendipity



Category: Star Trek 2009, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, James T Kirk- a character study, Tarsus IV, Tarsus IV in the reboot is a big bag of what-ifs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-06 00:56:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4201746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SearchingforSerendipity/pseuds/SearchingforSerendipity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Terrible as it is, Tarsus IV is the ground on which the original Jim Kirk's character stands. This one is too different to have the same reaction,which while making the beat up kid in the beginning of Star Trek 2009 possible, it also bring so many possibilities, so many different roads that could branch from it. </p><p>Or, the character study about reboot Jim Kirk and Tarsus IV that wouldn't leave me in peace until I wrote it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once a Captain, Always a Captain

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to all readers! I must warn you that this isn't a work of fiction, but a very subjective rant on Tarsus IV and potential character changes the reboot didn't mention. Naturally, I own nothing but what my mind creates.

I mean, I think it's very much possible that Tarsus IV happened on Star Trek reboot, but here's the thing. On the Original Series, Jim Kirk had a safety net. His parents were living, his family was stable and he had had, until that point, a happy childhood. He had a home to return to, something to fight for, a reason to survive. Reboot Jim didn't. This Jim Kirk survived because that's what he did, who he was. He was a survivor from the moment he was born a fatherless premature on a shuttle. His mother was always away, his stepfather/uncle/abusive father figure was all the parental presence he knew and his brother ran away when he couldn't be older that thirteen .

Now, based on the deleted scene, it's clear he had been a good kid until then. His brother said it: his grades were great, he did his chores, he was obedient. He wasn't a true Kirk, because like Sam put it- he, as a Kirk, couldn't stay in that house. This pushes Jim to the scene with his fathers car- a suicidal moment ,fueled byanger and revenge, yes, but a very distinct sense of betrayal too. But at the last second he saves himself. He chooses to live, not because of his father or mother or brother but because he's James Tiberius Kirk, dammit, if he's going to live it will be on his own terms. 

This is the Jim who comes to Tarsus IV, who lives with his distant relatives. Maybe they loved him. Maybe he's actually happy, with a kind Aunt and a funny Uncle and maybe a cousin or two to protect and play with and who admire him in return. When the hunger begins, he's not a stranger to it- it wasn't like Frank was the most domestic of caregivers and Sam couldn't always find a way to make their rumbling stomachs quiet during the days they didn't go to school. When the fear begins, the greedy eyes and quiet whispers, Jim is with the adults strategizing, with the children planning and spends his free time hacking into everything that may help. 

This Jim knows the worst side of humanity, what anger and fear can lead men to. This Jim has been a victim far too long, rolls too well with the punches to be completely unprepared when Kodus announcement rings in the air, an ugly prelude to the uglier sound of blaster shots. When the time comes, he runs and runs and runs. His Aunt's sharpest kitchen knife is colder than her fingers when he took it, the food he helped his Uncle ration too light in his backpack.  
He's not the only one - his cousins, the neighbors kids, stray children with dusty feet and shocked eyes, they all flock to him. For the first time in his life, Jim has someone else's survival on his hands and he refuses to give up like his brother. He doesn't want this burden but through nights of running through dying woods and days of huddling together under caves, it becomes his burden to bear, his privilege .

Terrible as it is, Tarsus IV is the ground on which the original Jim Kirk's character stands. This one is too different to have the same reaction,which while making the beat up kid in the beginning of Star Trek 2009 possible, it also bring so many possibilities, so many different roads that could branch from it. 

My point is, this Jim Kirk could very well have become the one from the 2009 movie, but he could also become someone different. Lost children look at him, at his fierce jaw and calculating eyes and ready fists and see the survivor they must become and emulate and that Original Jim was fortunate enough not to be. 

Perhaps he becomes a protector as well as a survivor. Maybe it begins as a weak joke, maybe it doesn't, but somewhere along the way they begin to call him Cap. Some kids die, from hunger or cold or sickness or plain violence . Some days his hands just aren't steady enough and some days the blood covering them is not his own, but through it all there are hopeful faces upturned to him calling him Cap because he's the only security they have, leader and brother and protector and God, Jim has hated his Dad his whole life but he understands him so well now. Too well. 

After Tarsus IV, who knows? Winona Kirk may learn to love her son in the wake of all this horror, and if not, well, there may be another distant relative to ship him to. Then again, I think this Jim Kirk wouldn't rest until he achieved full powers over himself. He couldn't be the only one of his kids to be an orphan, and like hell he's going to leave them alone. Or instead they are the one's to look out for him. Shared pain opens many doors and gratitude is actually a thing, though he doesn't know that now, though he may never know it.

 

And what about Kodus? On the original series Kirk is one of the nine that know his face. How does that come to be? Does he escape? Does he live?

If he does, he'd wish he hadn't. Genius survivors are not exactly known for their mercy. In one world, Jim's voice rings clear and raw from the witness' chair in the trail that goes down in history as the day a madman's fate is sealed by a man-child. For the fist time, when the headlines speak the news of bravery of Captain Kirk, they don't mean the father. In another possibility, where the murderer hides, it takes years and unspeakable deeds until Kodus lies dead. A dark shadow comes in the quiet of the night and blue eyes reflect on the surface of an old kitchen knife.

What about recovery and therapy and the full weight of horror finally falling on too young shoulders? This is Captain Jimmy, Big J, Cap. He may not have a ship or a crew but he has as much of a duty as these stern men on stiff uniforms and twice the right. To think him a child is folly he won't allow to continue long (there are corpses that can attest to that. These too wore uniforms). To think him an adult would be unfair, but if it means his kids survive, he couldn't care less (there are children buried in handmade graves. They did not die easy). 

And even if bitterness runs deep, understanding strikes hard. George Kirk has never been so well understood as when his son took the hand of a little girl with a bleeding arm and a cry of Cap on her lips. Starfleet proclaims a wish for peace and a curiosity for the stars and Captain Jimmy has seem too little of both. There are so many legacies to honor now, so many he must remember and defend. Geoge Kirk is not even amongst the first twenty reasons his son enlists.

Maybe he travels. Maybe he adopts a fellow survivor or is adopted by one. Maybe he enlists. Maybe he tries to kill himself. Maybe he succeeds. Chances are he ends up in that same bar in that same night as in the movie, but I love to think of the different scenarios, the different ways Tarsus IV could shape him, for good or ill. That he becomes the Captain of the Enterprise is a favored idea, but the many possible journeys till that fascinate me. Little Cap Jimmy won't let me sleep in peace.

**Author's Note:**

> This is also on my tumblr SearchingforSerendipity. Kudos and comments are more than welcome.


End file.
